Gnoming

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Gnoming is a practice or practical joke involving the common garden gnome. There are several popular forms of gnoming, including both local gnoming, and travel gnoming. Travel gnoming has been around in several forms for decades. Australian local gnoming had its beginnings in Sydney, Australia in the 1990's and has since spread to Melbourne and Adelaide, with teams of gnomers from Revesby NSW, Mitcham and Blackburn VIC and Croydon SA competing for honours in daring and numbers. Gnoming involves the stealing or moving of garden gnomes from around your local neighbourhood, or around the world. Gnoming is one of few practical jokes widely undertaken that is both legal and non-destructive.

Some gnomers, such as the MALAG[1] and the FLNJ[2], take local gnoming to a more extreme level, holding gnomes to ransom or destroying them completely. This is not endorsed by all groups of gnomers.

The most commonly used gnomes are the 20 cm variety. They can be retained as bought, or altered to add character. Some groups of gnomers name them based on themes, other gnomer groups decorate them further than their already bright color schemes. Popular themes include ninja and commandos. Gnomes in character have also had specialized attatchments made.

[edit] Travel Gnoming

Travel Gnoming involves taking a gnome - either one of your own, or one taken from someones garden, and taking them on holiday with you. The object is to photograph the gnome in as many different places as possible. If it is a stolen gnome, the tradition stands that the photographs are sent to the address the gnome was lifted from, with the gnome eventually being returned having had 'adventures'.

This concept was alluded to in the most recent (2006) series of 'The Amazing Race' where gnomes were photographed in each country visited by the competing teams, along with the prizes offered in each location. The website Gnomes without homes[3] is a means for gnomers to post information on stolen gnomes, and for those who have had their gnomes 'liberated' to track them down.

For more information, see: Travelling gnome prank

[edit] Australian Local Gnoming

There are three streams of local gnoming:

The first involves purchasing gnomes for the intent of creating a gnome army. This is a 'force' of gnomes that is moved from one house to another at random during the night, allowing the occupant a surprise when they find their lawn and garden occupied by many small bearded men.

The second involves finding a house that already has gnomes, and simply arriving in the night, as often as possible, to rearrange the gnomes, implying they have a life of their own. This can be accentuated by dressing them and giving them different toys.

The third major stream of gnoming is the 'breeding gnome' where gnomes are gradually added to an existing gnome population over a long period of time, gving the impression that the cheeky devils have begun to breed. This looks less suspect when there are female gnomes present, preferably more than one, to avoid 'smurfette' syndrome.

[edit] External links

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